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Nightfall

Yacht designer and editor of Yachting Monthly, Maurice Griffiths, bought a 31ft gaff cutter called Nautilus on the Norfolk Broads in 1932. He re-named her Nightfall, had a coal stove fitted and sailed her away to explore the East Coast. The boat was built in 1910 by Miller & Co on Oulton Broad, Norfolk and designed by Harold Lidston. She has a 9ft beam and draws only 3ft 3ins. Maurice wrote part of his book Ten Small Yachts aboard Nightfall and she features in that book and another of his The First Of The Tide. In 1984 she was falling apart at Shamrock Quay, Southampton, when a young artist and his girlfriend bought her and spent 20 years restoring her on the River Medina, Isle of Wight.

Today she is a magnificent example of a shoal draught gaffer and is kept on a pontoon mooring above the bridge in Yarmouth, Isle of Wight. Her owners Martyn Mackrill and Bryony, the girlfriend who became his wife, cruise her to the West Country and across to Brittany. Martyn Mackrill, honorary painter to both the Royal Yacht Squadron and the Royal Thames Yacht Club also uses her in season as a floating studio to create many of his marine paintings.